Atlaca didn’t start as a product idea...

I grew up in a small town in the Aegean, learning early what land, patience and seasonality mean. I harvested olives with my family, observed natural rhythms and understood that good things take time. I also worked in sustainability consulting across different countries and industries, experiencing firsthand the speed and scale of modern business. At some point, I realized how disconnected modern life had become: from our bodies, from nature and from each other.

While backpacking through Mexico, I was trying to quit coffee. It wasn’t supporting my nervous system anymore and I was looking for alternatives. By chance, I found myself in a region where cacao’s ceremonial history began, at a land that once supplied cacao to royalty and early ritual traditions.

Not as a commodity, but as a living system shaped by soil, fermentation, climate and human care. From harvest to fermentation, drying to roasting, every decision affects both flavor and how cacao is experienced in the body.

Most importantly, cacao was a ritual. People didn’t just drink it, they slowed down with it, opened with it, connected through it. Atlaca was born from that experience.

We source our cacao from small-scale producers in southern Mexico. Each season, we select a single cacao. That cacao appears in two expressions: pure cacao and drinking blends. The method stays consistent. What changes is the bean itself and the decisions made along the way.

Atlaca isn’t just a brand to me. It’s a reminder. To slow down. To feel. To reconnect with the ground beneath us.

And maybe most importantly, to return to ourselves.

Ebz